Sunday, July 16, 2017

If Kadyrov Didn’t Exist, Putin Would Have to Create Him, Eidman Suggests

Paul
Goble

Staunton, July 16 – Vladimir Putin needs
Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov so that “compared to him,” the Kremlin leader
will appear “in the eyes of the West to be the lesser evil,” Igor Eidman says.
Thus, it works to Putin’s benefit to ascribe to Kadyrov all possible horrors
and crimes.

In the West, the Russian commentator
for Deutsche Welle says, the following “picture of the [Russian] world” is
being created: “In Chechnya there exists a pirate state headed by Kadyrov.His people kill in Moscow important
politicians. Only Putin can somehow restrain this monster” (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=596A5CC41081F).

Indeed, he
continues, it appears that many in the West accept the notion that if Putin
were to leave his position, “a new ISIS would appear in Chechnya and Chechen
terror would spread to Europe. Therefore,” such people appear to think, “it is
better that [Putin] remain at the head of Russia.”

By focusing on Kadyrov’s crimes,
Eidman suggests, the West ignores or at least minimized Putin’s and fails to
see that the Chechen leader is Putin’s agent, doing what Putin wants but doesn’t
want to acknowledge and helping him remain in power rather than being any
threat to the Kremlin leader.